The novel "Speak", by Laurie Halse Anderson captures the thoughts of a new high– schooler caught in some deep drama of the past. From the start of school, Melinda Sordino is shunned, glared at, talked about, and poked at because of one incident at a party from the end of last summer. With her friends turned away, her grades down, her family combative, and her looks deteriorating, what does she have left? Nothing has been seeming to go right for Melinda in and out of school since that night. She has silently appointed someone responsible for this situation, someone named "IT", Andy Evans. Every time he's around she feels sick. The protagonist of "Speak", Melinda Sordino has become depressed, insecure of herself, and flustered around others. Depression can come from many things such as being overwhelmed, loss of something loved, or triggered by an illness. Melinda Sordino has lost all of her friends, acceptable grades, and her family life. She has become an introvert, not listening in class and ignoring any crowd of people. Late in "Second Marking Period" of "Speak", after getting yelled at for her inadequate grades, Melinda finds a paper clip and remarks, "I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist . Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep?"("Rent Round Three" pg.87), she talks about "a cry for help", which is a sign of depression and she cuts her wrist, sort of, but it still draws blood, which is a major sign for not being content. Also, there are hints at the condition of her lips in parts of the novel, they are scabbed and chapped, she is picking at them. Maybe a sign of depression, a nervous, anxious habit? All in all, Melinda Sordino is depressed because of the loss of many things she loved in her life. Not being confident in yourself can cause emotional damage that isn't easy to reverse, and Melinda belongs to many insecurities. It isn't easy for her to see what she has become since the incident. In subchapter, "Winter Break", on page 70, Melinda shares her feelings to the readers, saying, "I was a huge disappointment. I'm not pretty ot smart or athletic. I'm just like them an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies.", Get more content
The book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is a fictional story about the struggles a high schooler is faced with everyday. In this book, many different things are portrayed including: fear, rejection, tension, anxiety, etc. Although Merryweather High School is fictional and not what people presume of high school, it is very similar and has many of the same aspects such as the role of the teachers, the way people would clique together and leave others out, and how Melinda became known as a "loser." Initially, a similarity between Merryweather HighSchool and a real high school is the role the teachers would play. Sometimes students will get teachers like Mr. Freeman, while other times they will get a Mr. Neck. Mr. Freeman is a very motivating
Get more content
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the message the author is trying to portray is that speaking and conveying your emotions is vital to expressing feelings.Talking to someone releases a sense of relief for now somebody else knows and that specific information is not as powerful to only the protagonist. Opening up to someone releases how the protagonist feels, which is vital because then that someone will help Melinda get past the event that occurred. If Melinda doesn't speak up and convey her emotions to someone about the event that occurred, people will start treating her poorly.In the novelSpeak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the message the author is trying to portray is that speaking and conveying your emotions is vital to expressing...show more content...
Talking to someone releases a sense of relief for now somebody else knows and that specific information is not as powerful to only the protagonist. Opening up to someone releases how the protagonist feels, which is vital because then that someone will help Melinda get past the event that occurred. If Melinda doesn't speak up and convey her emotions to someone, she won't move on from the
Students in Merryweather High school struggle to understand that being in their cliques won't do them any good because all it will do is separate those who have been best friends since the end of time causing social anxiety for others. "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson wrote an explicit book of what is the true meaning on how you could change your ways when you speak up instead of staying quiet. So, How does being silent affect the individual themselves? This induces the Students to have trust issues, being mentally corrupted, and to never be true to themselves. Because of these it doesn't allow something like for example the First Amendment Freedom of speech, this makes me ask what has our world come to?
Melinda Sordino just starting high school off with a bad start thinks to herself the resemblance of a tv to her conversation with Mr. Neck, "It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say" (Anderson 9). Indicating your feeling is a significance in life because it's one of the ways you only understand another, and if that isn't shared with others then you...show more content...
Freeman is a very wise art teacher with his words of advice especially the one given to Melinda that might just change her way of thinking about life as it is, "When people don't express themselves, the die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside–walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job" (Anderson 122). Speaking isn't just one way of disclosing yourself, but through dedication of passion so it will make a modification to the future kids that being brain dead zombies without imaginations are atrocious and unhealthy for stimulating the brain in growing by opening up new doors of
Get more contentSpeak By Laurie Halse Anderson
The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a teenage girl who stops talking after she gets raped. The title of the book is ironically based on the fact that Melinda, the protagonist, chooses not to speak again after the incident. During the end of the summer party, Melinda calls the cops on her friends causing her to avoid interactions with society. Her peers and friends begin to hate her, yet nobody once asks her why she did what she did. The reasoning for her action is that she was being raped. The tragic events changed once happy and enthusiastic girl into a depressed and introverted girl while being a dreadful student at a school. The main character Melinda gradually begins to portray signs of recovery and strength through her...show more content...
In all, Mr. Freeman helps her become a stronger person, and with his help, Melinda talks more as the year develops. This is essential to the main message of overcoming adversity and Melinda handles it maturely by grasping the feedback and applying it to her daily life positively. Over the years, Melinda has developed trust issues, and Mr. Freeman is the first to help her change. He is always there for her to offer a hand or advice in any way she may need. "You're a good kid. I think you have a lot to say. I'd like to hear it" (Anderson 123). For the first time, Melinda receives positive reinforcement from someone. Melinda truly develops a confidential and impactful relationship with Mr. Freeman that changes her perspective on different situations. Anderson reiterates the message in this portion of the book by demonstrating once again that by being open and discussing life with others it can help one learn more from a different perspective. "I guess I'll answer if [David] calls. But if he touches me I'll explode, so a date is out of the question. No touching." (Anderson 159) This shows a remarkable change in her character, as she becomes a dynamic character that undergoes a vital change. She finally accepts being open to society even though she is restrained to physically do anything because of her past. These baby steps portray a crucial development in Melinda as a person. The critical part of this is that Get more content
Laurie Halse Anderson creates a deep and meaningful book with the use of unique structure of the "chapters" and an important theme. Speak is a very relatable and realistic book. Many people around us have secrets that they are too scared to share. Melinda is a teenager that develops in character immensely. She goes from hiding a secret of herself to speaking the truth and finally revealing her secret.Rape is a serious situation and many people have experienced, but we do not even know it as the victims are possibly too afraid to speak up. Readers can relate to this book even if they aren't the one with the secret. They could be the friend who did not know, or just ahigh school student who witnessed it all happen. Speak presents an important
Get more content
By Laurie Halse Anderson
The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, features a fourteen year old girl named Melinda Sordino who lives in Syracuse, New York. The novel takes place close to present day, with the book being written in 1999, which is when the novel was written. Melinda comes from a middle class background and her parents are blue collar workers. Her mother works at a department store at the local mall while her father works in an office building. Both of her parents spend a lot of time at work and Melinda is an only child, which means she spends most of her time alone. The story begins with Melinda entering high school in her freshman year. The summer after eighth grade, Melinda and her friends attended a high school party. At the party, Melinda is assaulted
Get more content
Speak is a cleaver and an ironic title for a story in which the main character chooses not to speak. The story is written in first–person narration from the point of view of protagonist, Melinda Sordino. Speak is written like an interior monologue in the mind of an introverted teenage girl, like excerpts from her personal diary during her miserable freshman year of high school. Instead of blending in and finding her way through high school. She withdraws and secludes herself from the other students. She calls herself an "outcast." Melinda is so desperate to hide from the world; she turns an old janitor's closet at the high school into her safe haven. She cuts classes to hide in her closet. How lonely could this teenage girl be? All...show more content... And there is a clique of girls at the school who refer to their group as "the Marathas," that is the Martha Stewart wannabes. There doesn't seem to be a place where Melinda fits in. Where does a girl who has been sexually assaulted fit–in? Melinda isn't speaking to anyone, and no one will talk to her, except the new girl, Heather, who moved from the state of Ohio. Realistically, Heather being the new girl just wants to make friends. Heather doesn't know what is really going on with Melinda because she just moved to town. Heather has no idea what happened the night when Melinda called the police, which busted a summer party. In fact, no one knows, except for Melinda, what happened to her at the party? She is convinced that because she is a victim, no one understands her. The whole world, including her world, is out to get her and so it is best for her to remain silent. Ironically, the person Melinda finds as the outlet to help her express her feelings is her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. In a class assignment, Melinda is assigned to create an art project based on a tree. She begins to express her inner angst through this art project. At one point, she uses dried bones to sculpt a picture of a skeleton. Then she glues broken knives and forks to the project so that the bones look like the plastic utensils are stabbing them. It is a grim depiction of how Melinda feels, and is immediately praised by Mr. Freeman. Get more content
Laurie Halse Anderson, was born and was raised through many struggles that has built and strengthened her to the lady she is today. As a little child, she suffered from a speech impediment, an obstacle that took her a while to overcome. "When I was growing up, nobody thought I was going to become a writer. Especially if you talk to those early teachers. I struggled a bit to learn how to read. I had to go out for extra reading support and speech therapy, too, because I had a speech impediment when I was a little kid. When I did crack the reading code, I became that kid who was always in the library." (Reading Rockets 1)
In second grade, her teacher taught her haiku, and she loved it because it was short. She could spell the words easier because they were shorter, and it would be harder for her to spell them wrong. Her teacher explained that she could write down her feelings and the reader could interpret them easier. In that class she had a moment where she realized she could write, and she loved every moment of it. (Reading Rockets 1)
As a child, Laurie could listen to her father's storytelling...show more content...
I wrote it before I wrote Speak. I actually got it to draft eight and it was still pretty bad so I put it down, took that year and wrote Speak. And the writing of Speak in that first person point of view taught me so much about how to get inside a character's head that I went back and changed the point of view of Fever and revised it a bunch more times until it was ready to be published. I did have one incident where a child heard an early section of the book and made me tone things down because I am a little blood thirsty. I brought the chapter to my daughter's fifth grade classroom in which the mom in the book has to be bled because she's so ill. And it was pretty detailed. And I read it out loud. And the room was warm. It was after lunchtime. And a little girl in the back of the room... passed right out cold." (Scholastic
Get more content
By Laurie Halse Anderson
There are many valuable aspects in life that may mean a lot to a person. In this case, friendship is one of the most important relationships a person can have. Human interaction is something necessary to survive, having a friend is essential to the well being of everyone. However, not all relationships with people can be considered a friendship because some may take advantage of others to gain something for themselves. Whereas, other friendships may last years and remain strong between the two people, but if there is no trust then there is a possibility of losing a friend. On the other hand, positive friendships still exist and are the ones to cherish and appreciate the most. The novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson is based on a fourteen year–old girl named Melinda, who was sexually assaulted at a summer party. She called the police for help but since none of her friends knew what occurred, they assumed she called to get them all in trouble. This made her an outcast and she spent her ninth–grade year by herself. The theme of friendship is evident in the novel Speak as it impacts the protagonist Melinda. This is seen through Melinda 's friendship with Rachel, Mr. Freeman, and Heather. Rachel and Melinda have been friends for many years however, the incident that happened at the party drastically changed their friendship. They were very close that they would never leave each other 's side to eventually not being able to look into each other 's eyes. Their
Get more content
A book I would recommend to my classmates would have to be Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Speak is my personal favorite because the author portrays high school more realistically than most books. The book begins with the introduction of the main character Melinda. The reader soon discovers that Melinda was sexually violated at a party. She calls the police only for them to discover teens who are illegally drinking. Everyone at school is blaming Melinda for ruining their fun time. They do not know about the rape and think she only called the police to have them caught. Melinda starts to blame herself as well and stops speaking to everyone. The result of her never speaking is she becomes an outcast. Melinda later makes a friend who is named
Get more content
Melinda Sordino, the antagonist and narrator of the novel Speak written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is faced with isolation because of the trauma she experiences with her rape, the fact that her rapist attends her school, and because she is shunned by all of her peers. The summer before her ninth grade year, Melinda and her friends attend a high school party. She is raped at the party by a senior named Andy Evans, and immediately after she called the police. Before the cops arrived and busted the party Melinda left, causing everyone to believe Melinda was trying to get everyone in trouble.
On the first day of school everyone Melinda had no friends; she was seen as a snitch and untrustworthy. Because of emotional trauma she faced regarding her...show more content...
The man faced isolation because of the remote environment in which he is in and also because he isolated himself away from his imagination. The man is on journey in the Yukon wilderness during middle of the winter. London describes the setting as colorless and white, and that "there was no sun, not even a hint of sun" in the sky. The man is isolated from any color, sun, and civilization. The man is not only in an isolated environment, but he also had isolated himself away from his imagination. He wasn't able to picture anything going wrong during his journey and ignored the warnings of other experienced travelers, saying that conditions were too cold to travel in alone. During his trip he can't imagine the consequences that he will face because of the extremely cold weather. For example, he wasn't properly dressed for the conditions he was in, and he couldn't imagine how long the trip would actually take. In the man's situation, his form of isolation had a negative impact on his life and was cause of his death. The man's isolation was caused by behavioral differences because he made his own decisions, and chose to be in a situation where he was faced with isolation. I think that this situation could happen in the 21st century, but isn't as likely as would have been in the past. If this was to happen today, the man would probably just have driven to his desired location or would have called a friend for
Melinda Sordino is raped weeks before her freshman year, but nobody knows. Coming from a struggling family and friends that ignore her, Melinda has no one to tell. As her grades fall and her self esteem with it, she must choose to speak up against her rapist when he tries to take advantage of her again. In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, the uses of the author's life, the events that show the time period, and the philosophy of speaking up all contribute to why she wrote the novel. Laurie Halse Anderson faced many struggles as a young adult and shares her battles through the endeavors of the main characters in her books. From the beginning, "Anderson wasn't the best student, spending much of her time daydreaming in the back row" (Lew 11). Anderson started school as any other student. Good grades came easy and she was liked by her peers. Anderson also had a vivid imagination; she would imagine stories in her mind during random times of the day (Lew 11). Anderson also attended Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York for a two year associate's degree and then graduated from Georgetown with a bachelor's in language and linguistics (Lew 18). She has always enjoyed writing, and decided to pursue her dream of being an author because she felt the need to share her life experiences with others....show more content...
As for her adolescent struggles, she highly suggests seeing a therapist or a trusted adult for advice (Angelou and Anderson). Therefore, a conclusion can be made that Anderson's work,Speak, uses the author's life, certain events that happen in the novel, and the ideology of speaking up to emphasize why she wrote the book. Melinda's life closely resembled Laurie Halse Anderson's, and the author has stated before that the purpose of her writings are to influence young people who are going through the same struggles of Get more content
In novels, authors write works of literature for all their readers. Authors use literary elements to create a meanings for us to uncover. Sometimes, these meanings may not be too explicit. As we understand the tools that authors use, we can identify the meaning behind their work. One example can be found in the novel Speak by Laurie Halse– Anderson. In this novel, most words are used to enhance the meaning behind the title. Speak is a powerful title. Throughout the use of allusions, sarcasm and tone, the author is able to convey an idea to the readers. This idea is to speak about how we feel. People might not want to hear about how we feel or what caused us to make a certain decision, but you should not stay quiet. Although this is what
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although...show more content...
However, Melinda feels it to the extreme. Melinda went through a traumatizing experience, and everyone and everything around her contribute to the uncontrollable pain she is feeling. This pain has lead her to depression. Throughout this story Melinda has missed several opportunities to reach out for help. Teenage depression isn't just bad moods and occasional sadness. Depression is a serious problem that impacts every single aspect of a teen's life. If left untreated, teen depression can lead to problems at home, school, and in other aspects of ones life. Depression is often caused by past traumatic events. Although some teens aren't able to really process what is going on, they remember and are haunted be the event every day. It is extremely important to be informed about adolescent depression, and what can be done to help. Throughout the story, Melinda shows many signs of depression. Teens will often display changes in their thinking and behavior, lose their motivation, or become withdrawn. Psych Info Online presented some signs of depression that Melinda experienced in the novel. The signs Melinda indicated include: sadness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, withdrawal from friends, decreased interest of activities, social isolation, poor communication, low self–esteem, guilt, and
Get more content
Melinda was an outcast and loner in high school who was overwhelmed, fearful, and confused with her life and her environment at school. She was always silent in class and afraid to speak in front of people. Many students today might feel the need to fit in with other people so they wouldn't have to be looked down upon. As we take a look at Melinda's life we'll be able to see how she handles her daily conflicts. In the book, Speak, Melinda Sordino, an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, starts her year off with a terrible start. She's stuck with a mean history teacher, by who she calls Mr. Neck and a whole bunch of other weird teachers like her English teacher of who she calls, Hairwomen, because of her crazy, uncombed...show more content...
Hairwomen is hammering it to death" (Anderson 101). This shows that Melinda doesn't really enjoy how they're reading the book because of how the class is reading one sentence at a time and analyzing every small thing in the book. Melinda was thinking why Nathaniel couldn't just say what he meant straightforward but figured how it would be boring if he just repeated everything he said in the book. That's why he used symbolism in the story to make it more interesting. In another example, Melinda says "I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with an S maybe, S for silent, for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame" (Anderson 101). This shows that Melinda is emotionally unstable and thinks of herself in many bad ways such as her being dumb and afraid. It also shows that Melinda is kind of mad at herself for the person she is. For that, she makes herself feel ashamed. Another allusion that was used by the author was Picasso. During art class, Mr. Freeman says " 'Picasso.' He whispers like a priest. 'Picasso. Who saw the truth. Who painted the truth, molded it, ripped from the earth with two angry hands' " (Anderson 118). This allusion shows that Picasso was an amazing artist and can be capable of inspiring people like Melinda, who has her imagination paralyzed, to come up with a good art piece. Melinda agreed to go through the book
Get more content
"Speak" is book about a young girl who loses her voice after being raped and slowly gains it back over time. Laurie Halse Anderson uses an internal voice throughout the book to show the havoc that is attacking Melinda's mind. This adds to the theme of being outcast and isolated because the she has no one to really talk to.
One reason she is an outcaste is that she called the cops at the part where she was raped. This leads her to lose her group of friends "the Plain Jane's" the only things they ever say to her now are words of hate, an example is Rachel mouthing the words, "I hate you." Other people at school whisper about her in the halls and one girl at the pep rally knees her in the back and pull her...show more content... The big idea that I get from this book is that some burdens are just to big and the only was to handle them is together. The problem is that so many people are ashamed and would rather hide it that handle the situation. If all girls, or boys, who were put in situations like Melinda would speak up maybe there would be more justice in our
Get more content
Peer pressure can influence teenagers because they can do the activities the other people because they want to be popular and make their friends happy. What I think Laurie Halse Anderson,the author of ''Speak,'' is saying that a teenager will will do anything to be cool and have friends. In the book, Melinda is influenced because her friends and her attend a party and she gets drunk to try and be cool (Halse).I have had a friend who experienced peer pressure and my friend was peer pressured to drink alcohol and to smoke weed.My friend and Melinda have something in common because they both drank alcohol because they wanted to be cool(Halse).Melinda handled the pressure by not doing what people did and not hanging out with bad people(Halse).
Get more content
Culture plays a huge part in how people are raised, and their perspective of the world we live in. Everyone sees the world differently based on their beliefs. The author of "Speak" (by Laurie Halse Anderson), show Melinda's culture through rhetoric techniques such as imagery, allusion, and tone. The author uses imagery to show Melinda's culture by using how she views certain rooms or areas in her eyes. Melinda describes her room as 'belonging to an alien' "my room looks like it belongs to an alien. It's a post card of who I was in the fifth grade. I went through a demented phase when I thought that roses should cover everything and pink was a great color...I'm thinking about changing the rose wallpaper." "speak (Anderson)" This shows us that she doesn't like her room and that she thinks it could describe her better if she could change it. Another example is, "its looks like a commercial for vacuum cleaners, all fresh paint and vacuum–cleaner lines in the carpet. The lilac walls have a few artsy prints on them. Her bookcase has glass doors. She has a television and a phone, and her home work is neatly laid out on her desk.... The room screams heather. Why can't I figure out how to do that?" "speak (Anderson)" this shows us that she looks...show more content... During the book, Melinda refers back to a party multiple times. An example of this is , "the next thing I saw was the telephone. I stood in the middle of a drunken crowd and I called 911 because I needed help. All those visits from officer friendly in second grade paid off." "Speak (Anderson)" This shows that she was taught, and able to recognize when he she needs help. Another example is, when she references to the part again. "there is blood on the snow. I bite my lip clear through. It needs stitches. I hate winter. Ive lived in Syracuse my whole life and I hate winter." "speak (Anderson)" this shows that she has developed her own opinion of winter though her
Get more content
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is first–person narrative about overcoming our habits and misfortunes. It takes place at Merryweather High over the course of a year. The main character, Melinda, is a fourteen year–old, who is just starting high school. She is introduced, at first, as someone who doesn't speak to anyone, almost, at all. All theother people in the high school seem to detest her. They say hateful things to her and throw objects at her. She seems not bothered by any of this. She is in her own being.
As the story progresses clues to why people hate her so much are revealed. There is mentioning of a party that Melinda, some how, ruined. People say that they or someone they knew got in trouble at...show more content...
Over the course of the year Melinda becomes more and more miserable. Heather forces her to be what she dosen't want. Heather wants to be a part of a group of girls called The Marthas, a bunch of Martha Stewart wannabe's who Melinda doesn't like. Heather makes Melinda help her with ridiculous and impossible projects the Mathas assign Heather. Her parents are always on her grades. Melinda could care less about her grades. At least, after that night she could.
She, thankfully, finds sanctuary in an abandoned janitor's closet she finds while cutting class. She remodels the rather large closet with posters and a couch for her to take her naps.
The year continues on its dull, depressive track until Andy Evans comes back into the canvas that is Melinda's life. Andy is revered by Melinda as the one who caused her to plummet into the void that is her most recent life. Melinda finally recalls the night of the party she hade been blocking out for almost a year now. She still struggles with her tree.
Andy lingers in her brain as Heather takes full advantage of her. She is through. Heather approaches her about decorating the entire gym for prom overnight because the Marthas asked her to. Melinda stands upbound, at last. She tells Heather off. She feels good.
Melinda goes to her janitor's closet during the last week of Get more content